Got EMR? November 1, 2010

Yeah yeah… this is the new slogan at our hospital. After going live 3 weeks ago, the dust has settled and the frustration level has died down. Overall I’d say things are starting to get better… nurses are getting used to the new system and how things are done, however, some things just don’t change. Unfortunately, we still have the same old problems when it comes to pharmacy services. The same old system breakdown that exists prior to going live just got a whole lot bigger. I guess if you don’t fix a broken system before going electronic, the same problems will pop up time and time again.

I just don’t get it though. I’m sure you’ve had similar problems with pharmacy services… you know, missing meds, late deliveries, bad customer service. It would seem like whenever you ask for meds the person at the other end of the line sound irritated. Quite frankly I’ve never seen anything like it. You’d figure pharmacy would be your best friend, not so in this case. How many times would we have to make that phone call for us to get our meds on time? Maybe they should start hiring people from Walmart, at least they get the shelves stocked with goods and deliveries come as fast as you can say Kilimanjaro!

If there’s any pharmacy people out there, I’d like you to enlighten me with why it seems like pharmacy services suck especially down here in deep South Texas. In my opinion, pharmacy is the number department that gives nurses a lot of grief… and why? In the battlefield of healthcare, nurses are the marines, pharmacy is the navy. We can’t fight if we don’t get our supplies or ammo in time. One time I had to tell a pharmacist, “I hope that one day you’re not the one in a hospital bed twisting in pain because pharmacy couldn’t deliver your morphine on time”… and that goes for all pharmacists out there too!

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EMR implementation can be very stressful. We are in our third week of EMR implementation. The pointed truth is that an electronic charting system actually shows the weakest spots in the whole organizations processes that were previously cloaked by “organized chaos”. An example is that the Pharmacy, Dietary, and ancillary services suddenly are exposed to sudden death…..time stamping. There is no where to hide with EMR. You can read more about the real issues facing nurses at http://www.NursEtAl.com

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